The story of how Madison Channing met Alec Kincaid, the Scottish warrior that she came to know and love. A short story. Read it if you want to, review it if you can, flame it if you have a reason and enjoy!

**Author's Note:
Well, hello all. I know I am supposed to be writing in Tears of Blood, and I
swear I am, I am also bogged down by school work. Not to
mention relatives and bombarded my house to stay over for anywhere from one
week to three or four. Either way, I am trying to make time for writing, school
related or not. This short story is actually for my Writer's Craft class, like
my myth Fala. However, I haven't
actually handed it in to her so I'm not sure if she will like it, but I do and
I hope you all do too. Read, Review and Enjoy!**

Love Started with a Funeral

Love
is a beautiful, precious thing, they say and I could not agree more. Love
doesn't just happen. It grows inside of you slowly until you cannot live
without it, until you cannot live without that special someone. My special
someone is Alec. Like most women, I hated him when I first met him, granted I
was very young. Had I been told the day I met him that I would one day end up
marrying him, I would have thought they were demented, but hindsight is
twenty-twenty. Today, decked out in my elegant, white wedding gown waiting for
the music to signal that is time for my daddy to walk me down the aisle, I will
be marrying him. I will never forget this day, but I will also never forget the
day I met my little Scottish warrior, either.

"I
hate him," I spat out vehemently as I wiped remnant tears from my red, blotchy
eyes. I entered the backyard holding my daddy's hand. My daddy and I lived all alone.
My mother died when I was real young, too young to remember her, but Daddy
tells me about her all the time. He says I have her fire red hair and deep,
cerulean eyes. I can tell he misses her, even though I didn't know her real
well, I miss her sometimes too. I wish she was here right now. I bet she would
hate Alec just as much as I did. Daddy just didn't understand.

"You
don't hate him, brat. You are just really angry with him now, but you'll come
around," Daddy assured me.

"I
won't come around, Daddy!" I cried.
"He killed her! She was just minding her own business and he sicced that beast
of his on poor Jasmine and that beast isn't even going to get in trouble for
it. I heard that if dogs attack, they are put to sleep, but that beast is still
awake. Shouldn't he be sleeping, Daddy, for attacking Jasmine?"

"Madison,
honey, when they say they are putting an animal asleep, it means they are going to kill the dog. Do you really want Alec's dog
killed?" he queried.

I
sighed. "I guess not, but it's still his fault."

"Stubborn
child," he muttered, good-naturedly. He really just didn't understand. I don't
blame him. A lot of adults seem to have a hard time understanding simple
things. So I tried to explain what happened earlier today so he would finally
understand why I hated Alec and would not get over it. It all happened like
this.

"Who
is he?" whispered Naomi, earlier that morning, as she huddled by my side. All
the town's children played out in this field. Whitfield was a relatively small
town, but it was also summer and none of us had
anything better to do. There were maybe thirty or so children, all under the
age of thirteen, playing on the flat grassy field. Some of them even brought
their pets along. Jasmine, my cat, was wandering about on the ground so I knew
there were no dogs about. If a dog was around, she would scurry up a tree and
mewl until I went and got her down.

Off
to one side of the grassy field, there was a busy stretch of road so the older
kids often made sure the younger ones did not play too close to the road. Off
to the other side, there was a baseball diamond, but since no one was playing
baseball, the diamond was littered small huddles of girls either drawing things
in the ground with pointy sticks or, like me and Naomi, making sandcastles out
of gravel.

However,
our forlorn castle lay forgotten as we stared across the grassy field to the
metal playground set, which at one point had been painted several different
colours. Over time, most of the paint had peeled off and a dull grey remained.
Most of the boys had gathered around the jungle gym, while a boy that I didn't
recognize, stood on the top shouting orders to them.

The
boy wore black denim shorts that matched his spiky, jet hair and a vivid green
shirt which matched his piercing eyes. The bridge of his nose and his cheeks
were marked by a faint smattering of freckles. He looked to be around my age,
but he was taller. Like I said before, it was a fairly small town. The kind of
town where nobody locked their doors and everyone knew everyone else's name and
business. Yet this boy was a stranger, so I simply had to investigate.

Myself, Naomi and some of the other girls playing in the
baseball diamond left our castles and drawings to see what all the excitement
was about. I tried to brush away the fine layer of gravel dust that covered me
and pushed a wayward lock of hair out of my eyes. I heard the new boy raise his
cardboard cut-out sword and yell, "We will start by conquering this field and
getting rid of all the girls!" The other boys roared back, raising their own
cut out swords in the air.

"Hey!
This is our field, too. We can play here if we want to," I shouted, with my
hands fisted at my hips. "Who are you, anyway?"

"The
enemy!" the new boy shrieked. He climbed to a lower bar of the jungle gym and
leapt to the ground. The group of boys parted for him as he made his way to me.
He was actually glaring at us girls. "I'm Alec Kincaid."

I
smiled automatically. "I know your grandmother, Millie. She's been my
babysitter since I was three years old. She makes the best cookies in the whole
wide world. She says my hair is brazen. How come she never told me you were
coming?"

He
ignored everything I said and asked, "Are you the leader of the girls?"

I
hesitated and looked at my friends who nodded. I stepped forward and declared
that I was the leader. Alec threw the cut-out sword at my fight and declared
war. I stared back at him wondering if he was demented or something. I picked
it up and asked, "Why are you giving me your sword if you want to fight? Don't
you need it?"

He
sighed, a heavy, laborious sigh. He snatched the sword back and stated, as if
the information was common knowledge, "I threw down my weapon in front of you
and then you throw yours back at me so that war is declared and we can fight."

"But
why don't I just stab you with my weapon while you throw yours down so that you
die and I win the war?" I reasoned.

"Because
that's not the way it goes."

"Says
who?"

"Says
my grandfather, that's who," he snapped. "He knows because he knows everything
about Scottish Highlanders and he told me lots of stories about the wars and
feuds Highlanders fought. So now we are fighting," Alec explained like I was
stupid. He was looking at me like I was stupid too. I didn't like that.

"No,
we're not," I protested. "I don't have a weapon and I didn't throw it down."

He
wasn't very happy about that. He grabbed my hand and put his sword in it. He
moved back to his original position. "There, now throw it at my feet."

I
shook my head and he was getting real angry now. "Why not?"
he roared. "I'm Scottish and I
have to feud with someone!"

"Well,
I'm English. I don't want to fight a war," I replied with a shrug and heard
several murmurs of agreement behind me by some of the other girls. After all,
the boys all had cut-out swords and we didn't have anything.

Alec
narrowed his eyes. He once again snatched his sword away. "Fine, forget it." He
turned away and walked back to the boys and I thought, along with the rest of
the girls that he was giving up his foolish thoughts of war. However, once in
the middle of the circle of boys, he yelled, "They won't war with us, but we
will attack them anyway. Besides, Scottish people hate English people!"

With
loud battle cries, they rushed at the unprepared girls. I was caught off guard,
too. Like the rest of the girls, I ran back toward the diamond, screaming.
However, once we got there, we picked up the sticks that some had been using to
draw with and they became our weapons. We fought back the boys as they stomped
and trampled our castles. In the middle of the battle, Alec shouted, "And now
for the secret weapon, Jaws!" He picked up a whistle that had been dangling
around his neck and blew on it until his face turned red.

Within
moments, loud barks were heard as a huge dog barreled toward the field. Most of
the girls screamed, dropped their weapons and ran home. Some stood in terror,
not knowing what to do. That was when the big beast Alec called Jaws, turned
and started running toward something else entirely. "Hey! Where are you going,
boy?" Alec called.

When
I saw what the beast was after, I shrieked, "Jasmine!" and ran after the dog.
Poor, confused Jasmine didn't see the dog coming until it was too late to seek
refuge in the trees. Instead, she ran madly away from the beast in any which
direction while the dog continued to chase her, happily wagging his tail. I
chased the dog and I think, Alec had been chasing me.
Without thinking, my poor kitty streaked towards home which was across the busy
street. The pickup truck that hit her tried to swerve, but failed and Jasmine
was dead before she landed on the ground.

Harold
Atwater, driver of the pickup truck, was going to work and was a friend of my
daddy's. He caught me before I could run to Jasmine, who was all red and
squished looking. He rocked me back and forth while I cried. Alec stood on the
side of the road, clutching Jaws' collar. He wasn't smiling when I looked up at
him and his face had gone all white. "It's wasn't my fault," he cried and
added, "or my dog's fault." With that said, he ran away.

Even
with the explanation, Daddy didn't get it. He told me that Alec had probably
thought deep down that it was his fault and got scared. That was why he said
what he said and ran away. He said that made perfect sense, but it didn't to
me. In the backyard, a lot of people had gathered for Jasmine's funeral. Naomi
and some of the other girls were there, Harold was there, even though he had to
go to work, on account of he felt bad and even Millie was there. I felt a bit
happier because everyone who Jasmine had loved was there, but then I heard a
dog bark and gaped at Alec, who hovered besides Millie. He had brought the beast.

My
face turned bright red like it always does when I am really mad. "What are you
do you think you are doing bringing him here?"

Jaws was on a leash and Alec clutched it tighter. "He didn't
do anything!"

"He
chased Jasmine on the road!" I yelled.

His
face was turning red, too. "All dogs chase cats! Normal cats run up trees. It's
not my fault your stupid cat decided to run in front of a pickup truck."

I
saw the look of shock on his face when I burst into tears and ran out of the
yard. I ran to the front of my house where there was a white, wooden bench
swing on the large porch. I threw myself on the swing and sobbed uncontrollably.
Jasmine had been my cat since I was four years old and Daddy had brought her
home when she was a kitten. He had told me she was my responsibility and now
she was dead.

Someone
came out of the house and sat down on the part of the swing that I wasn't
sprawled upon. When I was done crying, I looked up to see Alec. I began to get
angry again, but then I looked at him, really looked at him. His face was pasty
white again and he wasn't looking at me. He didn't look angry. He looked
scared. Thinking back to what Daddy said, I asked him, "Alec, do you feel deep
down it was your fault?"

"It
wasn't my fault," he ground out, still looking straight ahead.

I
frowned at him. I knew Daddy was
wrong. He still looked funny, though. I sat up straighter and stared ahead too,
but I peeked at him every once and awhile. At least he hadn't brought that
stupid dog with him, I thought and then I begin to think about Jasmine again.
My lower lip began to tremble and tears filled my eyes. I was going to miss Jasmine. Now I was going to have to miss my mother and
Jasmine.

"Don't,"
Alec ordered tightly. I blinked and stared at him. He slowly turned his head to
look at me. "Don't cry," he begged, earnestly.

I
kept looking at him, even though he went back to looking ahead. Slowly things
began to make sense. "You don't like it when people cry? That
is why you turn all white and look scared."

"I'm
not scared of anything," Alec boasted. In a quieter voice, he said, "I just
don't like when girls cry because of me and you've cried three times. So now
you have to stop crying. Never do it again, okay?"

"No,
it's not okay. I can cry when I want to."

"Not
when I'm there," he persisted.

I
glared at him. "So if I fall down and hurt myself, I can't cry because you are
there and you don't like it?"

He
relaxed and even smiled. "See, you get it."

I
shook my head at him and thought he really was demented. That's when something
struck me. "You said I was crying because of you."

"So?"

"Then
you admit that it was kind of your fault and your dogs fault that Jasmine
died," I stated, knowing I was right.

"No,
I was just saying-"

"That
you felt bad, that's all. You can just say sorry."

"Madison,"
he growled, angry again. Then all of a sudden he looked sad again. "You're
right. It's kind of Jaws fault for chasing Jasmine and kind of my fault for
bringing Jaws, but only kind of!"

I
waited for a bit, but he didn't say anymore. Frustrated, I prompted, "And?"

"And
I'm sorry! There, I said it. Happy?" he demanded.

I
slowly smiled at him. "Kind of." He slowly smiled back
and we walked back to finish Jasmine's funeral. Daddy and Harold dug up a nice
hole and I placed the shoebox Jasmine was in down into the hole. We all took
turns throwing a bunch of dirt on the box and Daddy and Harold finished the job
with their shovels. The rest of us drank juice and Millie's cookies which were
best in the world.

Love
has many ways of flourishing. Love sometimes starts with friendship or
sometimes starts with chance encounters. Love has an endless number of
beginnings. My love started with a funeral. The band struck the first chords of
the Wedding March and the guests all
rose as I slowly made my way down the aisle. I smiled up at my daddy, I smiled
to Millie, who was up at the front, and Naomi, who was my maid of honour, but
mostly, I only had eyes for my warrior garbed in a black, fitted Armani tuxedo.
Tears kept my eyes moist as my father handed me over to Alec. His eyes were
also focused on me. Standing in front of him, I awaited for him to say
something, probably something about how breathtakingly beautiful I look.
Instead, he whispered, "Don't cry."

**Well, there we
go. I think it's short and sweet. Others might not agree. Anyways, I would have
probably made it longer, but damn teacher has page restrictions and word
limits. It's a pain in the ass. This one is supposed to be around 1200-1500
words and at the most, six pages. However, it's roughly around 2500 words and
seven pages long. Maybe she won't be able to count. Here's to hoping! Please
review and let me know about any changes I should make before handing it in.
Thanks a lot, love you all. Flawless Storm.**

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.